BALTIMORE, Md. — Stanley Yates Merritt, 92, of Bedford, Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland, died on Wednesday, May 8, 2019, in Baltimore.

During his life he was a much-loved son, brother, husband, father and colleague, and a friend to many. He was a Bedford orchardist and a distinguished electrical engineer, inventor, and patent-holder, having worked in the engineering departments of such firms as Alcoa, General Dynamics, General Electric, Union Camp and International Paper.

After retiring from International Paper, he formed a family corporation and consulted for government and corporate entities. He served the electrical engineering profession to the end of his life, most recently with Highground Services.

Born in 1926 on the family farm in Lebanon, Tennessee, Stanley was the older son of Dixon L. Merritt and Ruth E. Yates.

He attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, earning B.S and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering.

He served 42 years in the active Naval Reserve, being part of the initial setup of the Naval Reserve unit in Knoxville. When the call came for watch standing junior officers to volunteer to commission a new Essex class aircraft carrier, he was there and the commissioning day (Oct. 25, 1950) engineering log of the USS Oriskany (CV 34) shows him as the Electrical Division Officer. He advanced through the management ranks of Naval Reserve Training centers wherever his civilian employment took him until completing his term as Commanding Officer at the Knoxville Naval Training Center.

While stationed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and working on commissioning the USS Oriskany in October 1950, he married Ann Arlen Anderson of Bedford. They were devoted to one another in marriage, and in family life with their son and two daughters, for 52 years until her sudden death in 2002. They lived in Knoxville; Ft. Worth, Texas; Waynesboro, Virginia; Franklin, Virginia; and Bedford.

In 2006 he married a high school classmate, Charlene Finley Gill. They lived in Lebanon and traveled the country for both recreation and his professional activity. They enjoyed quilting and created hand-crafted quilts together until her death in 2018.

Stanley is survived by his brother Robert and wife, Linda, of Chanute, Kansas; daughter Meredith and husband, Don, of Charlotte; son Robert of Roanoke; daughter Maria and husband, Stuart, of Baltimore; stepchildren Edna Lee, Ron and Carolyn and their spouses, children and grandchildren; and many cousins, nieces, and nephews.

The family is deeply grateful to Karrisa Whitaker and to everyone involved in Stanley’s care at Brookdale Towson and Gilchrist Center Towson in Maryland for their love and generous support, and to Stanley’s great-niece Marty Watkin for her love and tremendous support in the last days of his life.

Stanley’s funeral will be at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 15, in St. John’s Episcopal Church, Bedford. Interment will be at Greenwood Cemetery, Bedford, next to Ann Arlen Merritt’s grave. Visitation is on Tuesday, May 14, from 4 to 6 p.m., in the Walnut Street Chapel of the Burch-Messier Funeral Home.

Memorial donations in lieu of flowers may be made to Community Concerts at Second, 4200 St. Paul St., Baltimore, MD 21218 (or communityconcertsatsecond.org).

Arrangements by Burch-Messier Funeral Home, Bedford.